Most Top Jobs Still Held By White Men, Federal Panel Finds

March 16, 1995|By New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — Despite three decades of affirmative action, "glass ceilings" and "concrete walls" still block women and minority groups from the top management ranks of industry, a bipartisan federal commission said Wednesday in the government's first comprehensive study of barriers to promotion.

White men, while constituting about 29 percent of the workforce, hold about 95 of every 100 senior management positions, defined as vice president and above, the report said.

White women have poured into the workforce, taking nearly 40 percent of all jobs nationwide, compared to 30 percent three decades ago.

But the report suggested that, in the race for top management slots, women stumble or are tripped in the stretch: They typically constitute less than 5 percent of senior managers in industries across the nation.

Women have had greater success moving into the ranks of middle management, like assistant vice presidents and office managers. According to the report and the 1990 census, white women now hold close to 40 percent of those jobs and black women hold about 5 percent. Black men hold 4 percent.

The report by the Glass Ceiling Commission cited various studies suggesting "that the glass ceiling exists because of the perception of many white males that as a group they are losing-losing the corporate game, losing control and losing opportunity."

"Many middle- and upper-level white male managers view the inclusion of minorities and women in management as a direct threat to their own chances for advancement," the report said.

In hearings, commission members heard hundreds of top- and middle-level managers, male and female, testify that white men were hindering the progress of women and minorities.

Referring to interviews with chief executives, the panel concluded: "Corporate leaders are talking the talk of inclusion. Yet minorities and women express dismay and anger when they describe what they perceive to be innumerable obstacles to their corporate advancement. In short, there is a difference between what corporate leadership says it wants to happen and what is actually happening."

The commission had its origins in 1990, when Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole initiated a department investigation into the issue of the glass ceiling. Her husband, Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), then the minority leader, sponsored the legislation establishing the commission.

It is composed of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, plus an ex-officio chairman, current Labor Secretary Robert Reich.